Last day here

It is bittersweet to say that today is our last in Guatemala.  We worked the morning at the Lily finishing up the concrete busting and removing it and delivering it to a road to fill in the ruts.  Sam & Jim stayed at the Oasis and (I have to ask them what they did:  they sawcut the sidewalk and Jim painted the fascia board on a different building. We had a special lunch of bbq chicken (I think), potatoes stuffed with cheese, tasty vegetable salad, cantaloupe, and cake. We celebrated Doug/Sara's 10 years here and  a new piano teacher from Korea (he studied Seminary here). Got to jump on a trampoline with some girls, swing with them, and chase them.  Everyone is healthy, thank God, and we continue to stay healthy  and minor accident free.  I hear we may have a bonfire tonight so that will We leave tomorrow at 5 a.m. to go to the airport.

Interesting Zapote

We took an hour and a half drive to the extreme remote area of Zapote this morning and met 120 boys and girls . The drive there was...interesting.  You have to cross 4 rivers (or the same river 4 different times) to get there.  Several men worked on building a concrete block wall while the ladies and a couple men handed out pencils to the kids (with inscription of Jesus Loves You) and pencil sharpeners.  Our team does plan on getting photos out for people to view, sorry we haven't been able to get many pictures for people to view (except via Faceboook).  We had a nice lunch with all the kids.  Wes, Amberly, Jim, & Shari went on a walk through the village.  We saw a pig bathing in the stream of sewage, lots of chicken, children bathing, a garbage dump next to a beautiful river, all kinds of beautiful tropical plants that I've only seen at Horticulture events (the plants grow like grass here).  We left Zapote and traveled to Antigua.  Several from our group did more shopping and a few of us parked in a park and people watched.  We were preyed upon by vendors every two seconds df during our relaxing time : )  Some of us went into one of the oldest Catholic churches in Antigua (1743 to date). It was beautiful but it was excessively ornate.  We had dinner at MonoLoco (Crazy Monkey), very tasty and again beatiful and interesting.  Guatemala people are so beautiful and hard working.

1/2 day of work and fun in Antigua

With only a minor incident involving scaffolding and steel roof sheets everyone survived yet another day of hard work.  We went back to the Lily and continued to bust up concrete, shovel concrete, shovel unidentified material, and apply more steel sheets for a roof.  It is coming along and everyone is working crazy hard.  You may see pictures of people resting and think man, did that person work?  Well, after swinging a sledgehammer 10 times or so a person has to rest.  : )  We finished up work and headed to pick up 6 girls from school.  That was interesting...the 3 girls went up the streets to get the the little ladies from school, they were excited to get us. All these parents (25?) were shoving up against us to get their kids.  We went back to the Oasis and got showered and listened to a presentation about Kids Alive and how we can participate in helping sponsor girls.  After that, we went to the old capital of Guatemala called Antigua. We bartered in the markets for our goods and fun was had by all.  We ate dinner at a place called Cafe Sky. Pasta, quesadillas, tirimisu, other crazy looking stuff was ordered and every one left full.  It was very enjoyable and relaxing!  The atmosphere and ambiance was spectacular. It was very open aired and there was a spiral black staircase that led to the roof where you can see the city lights, stars, and mountains.  Beautiful!  We do have one feeling sick so please be praying for health.  Tomorrow we will head to an extreme remote location called Zapote (sp?) and build a wall while some other folk hand out pencils and sharpeners to 145 boys and girls.  Zapote is around 2300, elevation so it will be hot. The Oasis is  around 7500 elevation.  It is around an hour or hour and a half away. 

This morning, Mr. Jim Fisher serenaded our crew at 6:15 a.m. with his bag pipes. Some loved it, some did not. :)  Pancakes were cooked for breakfast and some ate fried eggs or scrambled.  After breakfast, we got right to work on mixing up many many many loads of concrete. We had a pretty nice system rolling. Sam and Kevin worked on screeting the new sidewalk at the Oasis.  Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow kept rolling  the goods to Sam/Kevin.  The 3 ladies then napped on the grass for a good 1/2 hr while the men continued to tinker and work.  I had the opportunity to play a couple games with a couple little ladies and we had a great time. I tought them some fun dance moves on a super slick floor. They wanted to dance over and over again.  These girls are super cute and sweet!!! Lunch was tasty and consisted of black beans with rice and pico de gallo, blackberries and marshmallow with cinnamon fluff, tortillas made with cornmeal maybe?, and fried squash.  After lunch, we ventured back to the Lily where some were figuring out how to put a steel roof on some steel beams and the rest continued to sledge, shovel, sweep, pick up, toss etc...We will have dinner and devotions soon followed by playing a game Dave Mcclure might have created called Zonk, sounds devious and intense.  We've had some good felllowship time and some interesting card arguements.

Until next time, this dirty crew is cleaning up.
ALH

Productive and long day

We started our day off with fellowship at breakfast. Afterwards, one team stayed at the oasis to put in forms (and dig up a lot of grass), sawed boards for the forms and rumor has it that we'll pour concrete tomorrow for a sidewalk. The other team went to the lily about 15 minutes away and busted up a lot of thiiiiick concrete patio and a solid concrete bathroom outhouse (about 6 by 8 foot). Most people were red colored, sore, tired, and still able to enjoy each others company. We had lunch with the little ladies and enjoyed their antics. Tonight we dove into the second chapter of Ruth. fOllowiing, we had an ongoing heated ROOK game going. Still trying to get pictures on the blog, but Internet is super slow. Adios

We are here, it is pretty we are tired.

We arrived in Guatemala Saturday afternoon with no problems!!  After 5 hours in 2 different church services, seeing the presidential palace, a cookout with all the Oasis ladies and a rough and tumble game of soccer, we are all tired but ready for an eventful week. Tomorrow we will start painting and breaking up concrete.

Blessings to those at home,
ALH

p.s. pictures to follow sometime...